17 July 1997 Edition
Editor's desk
A bit of an SDLP dogfight has broken out in the pages of Fortnight magazine. Brian Feeney, Irish News columnist and former SDLP councillor, has recently been highly critical of the SDLP. He writes in the latest issue of Fortnight: ``In the local government elections in May one SDLP candidate in West Belfast got 85 votes. That vote says more about the SDLP than the candidate. Any fool could see there were too many candidates and the party vote was not properly divided. How could a party which has been fighting PR elections for over a generation deliver such a result for one of its candidates? Answer: lousy party organisation.''
Back comes a snarl and a bite from Johnathon Stephenson, the hangdog Chairperson of the SDLP (who, if he played gaelic football, would be known as Seán MacStiofáin). In a letter in the same issue he writes that ``Brian Feeney speaking on party organisation is a little like the Pope discoursing on responsible parenthood; both are familiar with the principles but know nothing at all about the practice. During his time as a councillor Brian single-handedly reduced his own local organisation to zero''.
Ding ding. Round Two.
I'm sure many of you tuned in to the live coverage on BBC1 of the Twelfth parade in Belfast. Amid the strutting and dancing and plain silliness (I just cannot believe that Reg Empey marching while wearing Orange flowers in his bowler hat did not realise how ridiculous he looked) the commentary from jazz lover Walter Love and ``Orange historian'' Clifford Smyth was a joy to listen to. They took me back to the mythical days when the wee province was all peace and light and bigots could march wherever they wanted. Politics? Sectarianism? Drumcree? Don't be silly, this is a colourful street festival.
So it didn't surprise me that Clifford praised the First World War replica uniforms worn by a band commemorating the original UVF while completely ignoring a nearby band wearing the uniform of the more modern UVF death squads.
Certain of our friends in the media have got their eyes on the new Sinn Féin TD Caoimhghín O Caoláin. Last weekend's Sunday Times had a front page story saying that Andreas Strassmeir, who allegedly had links with Timothy McVeigh, the Oklahoma bomber, is living in Dublin and is ``socialising in Sinn Féin circles''. They said he had attended a function celebrating Caoimhghín's election. Of course, no one in Sinn Féin circles has ever heard of the man and, for the record, Caoimhghín has said, ``I have no knowledge whatsoever of the individual mentioned in these reports''.
The Irish Independent had a go at the new TD last Friday when they gave front page treatment to a story about him having to pay money back to the Social Welfare. In a sign of their sense of news value, the story was more prominent than Haughey's little financial difficulty, the loss of 300 jobs in the Asahi factory, CIE's £56m losses and the Orange Order's decision not to march in four contentious areas.
I think Caoimhghín is already getting used to this sort of thing.
Word reaches me of something less than patriotism in the ranks of the British Army. Apparently, while New Labour Ministers are telling the world that British Beef is Best and even McDonald's is once again using British beef in its hamburgers, the British Ministry of Defence is still refusing to serve mad British cows in its canteens.
After we forced NIO Minister Adam Ingram to admit his past membership of the Orange Order, the story was picked up in his native Scotland. The influential Scotland on Sunday, which led with the story on 6 July, reported that some of Ingram's parliamentary colleagues refer to him as ``Orange Hun''.
Back comes a snarl and a bite from Johnathon Stephenson, the hangdog Chairperson of the SDLP (who, if he played gaelic football, would be known as Seán MacStiofáin). In a letter in the same issue he writes that ``Brian Feeney speaking on party organisation is a little like the Pope discoursing on responsible parenthood; both are familiar with the principles but know nothing at all about the practice. During his time as a councillor Brian single-handedly reduced his own local organisation to zero''.
Ding ding. Round Two.
I'm sure many of you tuned in to the live coverage on BBC1 of the Twelfth parade in Belfast. Amid the strutting and dancing and plain silliness (I just cannot believe that Reg Empey marching while wearing Orange flowers in his bowler hat did not realise how ridiculous he looked) the commentary from jazz lover Walter Love and ``Orange historian'' Clifford Smyth was a joy to listen to. They took me back to the mythical days when the wee province was all peace and light and bigots could march wherever they wanted. Politics? Sectarianism? Drumcree? Don't be silly, this is a colourful street festival.
So it didn't surprise me that Clifford praised the First World War replica uniforms worn by a band commemorating the original UVF while completely ignoring a nearby band wearing the uniform of the more modern UVF death squads.
Certain of our friends in the media have got their eyes on the new Sinn Féin TD Caoimhghín O Caoláin. Last weekend's Sunday Times had a front page story saying that Andreas Strassmeir, who allegedly had links with Timothy McVeigh, the Oklahoma bomber, is living in Dublin and is ``socialising in Sinn Féin circles''. They said he had attended a function celebrating Caoimhghín's election. Of course, no one in Sinn Féin circles has ever heard of the man and, for the record, Caoimhghín has said, ``I have no knowledge whatsoever of the individual mentioned in these reports''.
The Irish Independent had a go at the new TD last Friday when they gave front page treatment to a story about him having to pay money back to the Social Welfare. In a sign of their sense of news value, the story was more prominent than Haughey's little financial difficulty, the loss of 300 jobs in the Asahi factory, CIE's £56m losses and the Orange Order's decision not to march in four contentious areas.
I think Caoimhghín is already getting used to this sort of thing.
Word reaches me of something less than patriotism in the ranks of the British Army. Apparently, while New Labour Ministers are telling the world that British Beef is Best and even McDonald's is once again using British beef in its hamburgers, the British Ministry of Defence is still refusing to serve mad British cows in its canteens.
After we forced NIO Minister Adam Ingram to admit his past membership of the Orange Order, the story was picked up in his native Scotland. The influential Scotland on Sunday, which led with the story on 6 July, reported that some of Ingram's parliamentary colleagues refer to him as ``Orange Hun''.